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Peer Reviews
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
By Washington Irving
Directed by Ellen Hanaver
Reviewed by Cristina Martin
Entire contents copyright © 2008, Cristina
Martin. All rights reserved.
Never do I recall having received as genuinely
warm a welcome at a theatre as I did upon my arrival
at Hayswood Theatre of Corydon, Indiana, for the
current production of Washington Irving's
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was
remarkable — the
house manager and ushers alike were so pleasant
as they helped audience members find their very
comfortable seats that I felt instantly at home.
When the house went black and the sound of crickets,
approaching horses' hooves and children's
laughter filled the room, it felt like huddling
around a campfire, the audience bound together
in camaraderie and thrilling to the spooky atmosphere.
The curtain opens on a brightly lit scene in the
hamlet of Sleepy Hollow roughly two hundred years
ago. In the original Washington Irving story upon
which the play is based, Sleepy Hollow is a Dutch
settlement, but here it has been transformed into
a German one. Children and townspeople gather in
front of the Sleepy Hollow School Haus, eagerly
awaiting the imminent arrival of the new schoolmaster.
His prospective students are played by an energetic
group of young people dressed in an array of costumes
(colorful peasant skirts and blouses, bonnets,
and breeches designed by Liz Swarens) that make
for a pleasing tableau. Behind them, the lovely
painted backdrop of Artistic Designers Larry Morgan
and Jeanne McCutcheon depicts a landscape of country
roads with mountains in the distance.
We learn that Abraham "Brom Bones" Von
Brunt (Denny Grinar), the town's merry prankster,
has plans to marry Katrina Van Tassel (Shelley
Hanaver-Torrez), the only child of a prominent
farmer in the community. Grinar plays his role
with all due rowdiness, but Brom Bones seems a
bit immature for Katrina; perhaps this is why she
gravitates to the new schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane
(Jonathan Vanderford), when he arrives. Adept at
singing, versifying, and peppering his conversation
with French phrases, he is quite a hit with Katrina
as well as with the elder townspeople. Among the
children, he is most popular for the scary tales
he tells them of witches and ghostly hauntings.
Shelley Hanaver-Torrez is very well cast and portrays
Katrina with nuance and sparkle. With his lankiness
and chiseled profile, Jonathan Vanderford makes
an excellent Ichabod Crane. Though she is initially
smitten with him, Katrina eventually decides that
Ichabod is too conceited, and her ardor cools.
Both actors give a strong and entertaining performance
in the scene in which she decides that she has
finally had enough despite his protestations.
Like Hanaver-Torrez and Vanderford, the other actors
with the most notable performances were those who
visibly poured all of themselves into portraying
their characters. Some of the people on stage seemed
quite uncomfortable there, but those who were able
to relax into their roles and to act not just by
reciting their lines but in their reactions and
in their body language and facial expressions,
too, were most successful. As Hilda Van Ripper,
Dana Taylor stood out among the town folk, and
as her elderly mother, Patty McClure brought the
house down with her ear trumpet and her tell-it-like-it-is
style. As the eldest among the children, Linnea
Bailey and Lizzie Anderson did an especially fine
job.
The climax of the story occurs when Ichabod Crane,
riding home from a party at the Van Tassels',
encounters the stuff of legend: a headless horseman,
said to be a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary
War, who haunts the surrounding woods. As they
do at the start of the play, the nighttime sound
effects set the mood well for Ichabod's ride.
And he actually does ride a horse — an impressionistic
stuffed and painted one on wheels that works surprisingly
well. More could have been made of the spookiness
factor, however, both in this scene and during
the prior telling of ghost stories. If the lighting
were adjusted, perhaps via the use of spotlights
to create more contrast and shadow, the audience's
imagination would run wild, and they'd really
see a headless horseman rather than an actor hiding
beneath a cape. On the other hand, maybe we really
are supposed to see the latter: Ichabod is never
heard from again after his fateful ride, but Brom
Bones gives a knowing wink at the play's
end that just might mean something.
I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the
lovely musical interlude during intermission which,
I am told, is courtesy of Musical Director Lori
Bailey. Along with the free refreshments (donations
to the theatre are gratefully accepted), this makes
the theatre-going experience all the more enjoyable.
Violinist Jeff Hurtgen plays wonderfully, too,
during a scene in which the characters dance at
the Van Tassel home, executing Rita Hight's
skillful choreography.
It's a ride of not even thirty miles back
to Louisville from Corydon, but it can seem dark
and lonely indeed when one's head is filled
with images of the Headless Horseman and the mysterious
disappearance of Ichabod Crane. This deliciously
eerie tale is an early American classic, and Hayswood
Theatre could have chosen no better show to set
the mood for Halloween.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
September 26 through October 12, 2008
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.
Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
Hayswood Theatre
115 S. Capitol Ave.
Corydon, IN 47112
888-738-2137 or 812-738-2138
www.hayswoodtheatre.com
Posted Oct. 1, 2008
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